Interviews

Aug. 29, 2016 email from Zebra Fact Check The fact-checking website PolitiFact recently published a fact check that was heavily reliant on a survey published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The fact check noted that the survey had too many methodological problems to count as solid scientific evidence, yet the story’s conclusion made it appear that each of you,…Read more

Aug. 29, 2016 email from Zebra Fact Check (addressed to Sheri Bauman, Dorothy Espelage, and Jan Urbanski): The fact-checking website PolitiFact recently published a fact check that was heavily reliant on a survey published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The fact check noted that the survey had too many methodological problems to count as solid scientific evidence, yet the…Read more

We sent the following message to Professor Darius Rejali on May 25, 2016. Dear Professor Darius Rejali, I’m a fact-checking journalist working on the issue of torture. Specifically, whether torture works. I’m writing to you because PolitiFact has cited statements from you saying that torturers do not know when tortured prisoners are telling the truth (PolitiFact uses that as an…Read more

On Jan. 4, 2016, we sent the following message to PolitiFact Missouri writer Adam Aton. Though we included editor Mike Jenner in the salutation, we neglected to list Jenner as a recipient. Dear Mr. Adam Aton, Mr. Mike Jenner I’m a fact-checking journalist preparing an evaluation of PolitiFact MIssouri’s fact check of Will Kraus. Your fact check faults Kraus for asserting…Read more

Email interview questions posed to PolitiFact writer Linda Qiu and PolitiFact editor Angie Drobnic Holan through their published email addresses. Note neither replied to the messages, which is common with PolitiFact staffers. If we receive any reply on this subject we will add the reply to this page. Nov. 5, 2015: Dear Linda Qiu, Angie Drobnic Holan, The Facebook version…Read more

We sought the opinion of Zbiegniew Mazurak on defense issues. Mazurak’s “About Me” page says “I’m a defense analyst with 6 years of experience in the field, specializing in the defense budget, nuclear weapons strategy, and missile defense.” We wanted to see how Mazurak would approach the fact check issue without our leading toward a particular angle. As a follow…Read more